- « The most
remarkable painter of the motoring world » (L'Automobiliste,
Editions Maeght, December 1985)

- "Among the poster
artists of the interwar period, Géo Ham comes at the top of the pile
and has remained influential for many years since then" (Jean Durry, Le
Sport et l'Affiche, 1988)

- " Géo Ham is as
much a sculptor as an artist ... The skills he has shown in the Art
Déco posters advertising car races or rallies are unmatched: aircraft
or racing cars bearing down on onlookers make your head spin" (Hervé
Poulain, Automobiles Classiques n°47, dec. 1991.)

Chronological markers :

Georges Hamel was
born in Laval (Mayenne) on the 18 th of September 1900, and was brought
up in a family with great feeling for artistic & technical
developments of a new century full of promise.

It was in his
native town when he was 11 that he had a moment of revelation of the
beauty of aeroplanes, when a pilot, Allard, flew over Laval.

Two years later,the
sight and sound of racing cars driven in Laval by G. Boileau (Peugeot)
and E. Friedrich (Bugatti) - to mention only the most prestigious -
filled the thirteen-year-old with wonder. Straightaway, young Georges
took to his paintbrushes and covered the back of postcards published by
his father with fine gouache. At school, at that same time his first
prizes in art classes testified to his gifts, which his later career
fully justified.

In 1918, he passed
the entrance examination for the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and went up
to Paris.

Under the name Géo
Ham, his posters advertising motor races and air shows brightened up
many city walls. Simultaneously, his watercolours and gouaches livened
up the books he illustrated. Besides, his skills as a designer were put
to good use in the drawings of motorcycles, automobiles and advertising
vans. Last but not least, his work as a press reporter shows how
involved he was in the motoring scene.

However, after
World War II, in spite of his substantial assignments as a designer,
the "prince of speed" gradually fell into almost total oblivion, a
victim to the new technology of colour photography.

He died in 1972
after a surgical operation. Only a dozen people attended his funeral.

To make up for that
situation an enthusiastic team of admirers was formed, sought to give
Géo Ham the place he deserved and put his name back on top of the bill.

OUR TRACK RECORD

• 1994 "L'Ham de la course", the first exhibition of Géo Ham's work in Laval.